It doesn't have to end like this
by peetax
Summary: This can mean a lifetime of change.


"Draco, can you hear me?" Hermione was uncertain if her words were just useless breaths. Draco was lying on the hospital bed, a deep wound, traced on his forehead and several broken bones. His breathing was silent, Hermione was almost convinced that he was dying but she reassured herself when she felt his hands shake at certain intervals. Hermione continued to run the events through her head. It was simply impossible how it happened. Just hours ago Hermione was watching Draco at the Quidditch match. Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Next thing you know Draco just... fell off his broom. He laid there sprawled out on the pitch, innocently, which is hard to describe any of the Malfoy's as they were _nowhere_ near that term.

"W-what are you doing here m-mudblood?" Draco stuttered. His eyes began to roll and his breathing slowed down. Hermione started to panic.

"Where's Madam Pompfrey?" Hermione called to the group of students who stood around the both of them. Some looked at each other and the rest shrugged. No one actually attempted to answer the question.

"Will someone, please get Madam Pompfrey. _Now_!" She shouted. Hermione focused her eye contact on a shrivelled 1st year that stood out. Her hair was mattered and her robe was loose. Her eyes widened and she turnt on her heel and scurried off. Hermione wasn't sure _if_ she was going to call for Madam Pompfrey.

Draco began mouthing words to Hermione. She leant towards him and heard his soft voice; it was perfectly clear what he was saying but why did those words confuse her? Draco slowly closed his eyes and his last breath was exhaled from his lungs.

Draco Malfoy was dead.

Coming to terms with Draco's death troubled Hermione, her potions final was in two ½ days and grief was dominating all her feelings. Bollocks. She tried to concentrate on reading her potions book, but several words could not be engrossed into her significant brain.

"_Lumos_," Whispered Hermione. She held the tip of her wand close to her potions book. She traced her finger across each word to take it in, "And lastly, an extract of The-Transfigured-Being-To-Be."

_She had already read that sentence._

The sentences became out of focus. She squinted her eyes and leaned toward the book but couldn't gaze at it properly.

"_Nox,"_ As the light at the tip of the wand eased down, Hermione closed her potions book and put it beside her, along with her wand and went asleep.

Morning arrived. A good day ahead for most, the sun shone along the horizon of the mountains as it started to ascend. Hermione's grief still hung over her head. She didn't feel the need to communicate with anyone in the girls' dorm or anybody for that matter. She greeted Ron and Harry with a smile but then left the common room immediately after. With the commotion of students, meant that Hermione had to launch her way through first years, who didn't know the difference between a Grindlylow and Professor Flitwick. She frantically made her way through and approached the D.A.D.A classroom. The corridor started to fill up with other 5th years waiting for the new Professor who had taken over Defence against the Dark Arts, for this term.

Defence against the Dark Arts meant mainly practical lessons and hardly ever, theories. Hermione would be an up and comer if theory lessons were on the table today, but no. It was decided that the students deserved a break from all the hard studying they done for their upcoming exams.

_But shouldn't a theory lesson help us be more prepared for the exam?_

Apparently not. Hermione stood near the back of the classroom. Instead she slipped open a book that she took from the shelf and began scamming each word, every sentence. Sounds became barely audible. Hermione was in her own world and in her own world, Draco Malfoy was alive.

Quidditch matches were great. It was all part of the fun, the one chance Hermione would get away from a book. Gryffindor versus Slytherin. As the Gryffindor team entered the pitch a roar of cheers arose from the crowds, followed by Slytherin whose 'fans' seemed to shout or more of a scream it sounded. Hermione rested her head into her hands; nothing good was to become of this. Team games just made Slytherin and Gryffindor more competitive with one another. As broom after broom tumbled on the floor along with its Gryffindor owner, Slytherin laughed. The coldest laugh.

Draco Malfoy whizzed about on his broom, as the Slytherin seeker he searched for the Golden Snitch. He was a graceful rider, every move was faultless. Harry always had competition when a Quidditch match was against Slytherin. Draco rested on his broom, his legs waving as he watched the crowds cheer below him. A golden light caught his view. Harry brushed past him and Malfoy soon followed.

"Potter!" Draco hissed. He soon was quick on Harry's tail and both were an equal distance between the Golden Snitch. Draco removed one of his gripped hands off his broom and reached out. Harry did the same. There they both were in an ambitious battle. Hermione watched at the sidelines. She sat up, this was what intrigued her.

"You think I'm gonna let you get this fucking thing?" Draco asked, inserting his sarcasm in along the way. "Potter move!" Draco abruptly slowed down on his broom, Harry flew past. Draco looked down, he witnessed his legs quiver. The scenery started to go sideways, then close to being almost upside down. Hermione gasped and stood up, she watched Malfoy elegantly fall off his broom to the ground. She leant over and saw him lay there, his broom next to him; like it had been positioned. That's when Draco Malfoy died.

Hermione tried to place the pieces together. She wasn't in the hospital with him this time, she couldn't say goodbye, and she didn't hear his last words. His striking words. This was bizarre.

Voldemorts' return petrified people. Hermione, Harry and Ron all had to help protect the order. There was a fight ahead. Harry held classes for Dumbledore's army. Hermione wanted Malfoy to learn, he could be so much better if he was taught how.

"Draco, please!" Hermione begged, she held her hands together and tilted her head to the side waiting for an answer and hopefully a good one.

"You're mental," Draco replied, with a silent laugh. Hermione smiled back at him. Malfoy had just called Hermione mental. Now that was definitely a step up from Mudblood or something heartless that would have come out of his mouth. "Granger, I've got a Quidditch match right now."

"Good luck with the match Draco." Hermione slipped in as she began to walk off. Hermione started to run Malfoy's death through her head; she had to make sure that Draco was safe. She stood near the entrance of the pitch after the match began. Her eyes wondered the crowd, making sure that no one could jinx the broom or hurt Draco. Her eyes were also firm on Draco.

Thunder clouds began to roll. The dark mark emerged from the sky. Everyone froze. Apart from Draco, he began to lower himself back to the ground. He got of his broom and quickly walked out. He brushed past Hermione and touched her hair.

"Draco, where are you going?" Hermione called out to him.

"You're fucking kidding me Granger?" Draco stopped turnt around and laughed. "They want me. I'm old enough to be... one-of-them now."

"B-but, you can't go through with this..." Hermione cried. Draco began to run as several death eaters apparated into the school grounds.

Draco opened the door, rushing into the boys' lavatory and hid in one of the cubicles. The door was once opened again and was followed by a high-pitched voice.

"Draco?" Bellatrix cooed. Draco's lips grew dry and his breath was silenced. Why did it have to be him? Wasn't there a simpler problem? A problem that could be cured with that one curse, the killing curse. But the words that frightened Draco, the flash of green light and then the end.

Draco slowly removed his wand from his trouser pocket and pointed it at Bellatrix, whom he saw through the thin crack in the door. Bellatrix continued to pace up and down the corridor calling for Malfoy. When hearing Hermione's screams mirroring in his head, something inside Draco snapped. He was suddenly aware of what he was doing, pointing his wand at his aunt, but unaware of the words that came coldly out of his mouth, her sickly laugh that echoed and the emerald green flash. Silence. He stood in horror, the words were shouting in his head. He approached Bellatrix with his wand still firmly gripped in his palm, her lifeless body lay there but the evil in her eyes was still existent. Draco took a moment to focus before he realised what he had done. He had killed his aunt. Draco slid his trembling hands through his flaxen hair and began pacing.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh sh-shit!" Draco exclaimed. He swallowed his breaths. He kept a firm eye on Bellatrix's sprawled out body. He finally came to a conclusion that he had done the right thing.

_But why had he done it? What was his motive?_

"_Sectumsempra_!" hissed Bellatrix as she thrusted the curse at Draco. He innocently fell to the stone floor, the flow of blood gained upon him; Bellatrix smirked and left the lavatory. A piece of stone lay next to Draco that had fallen from a pillar. The curse has rebounded and missed her.

"Draco?" Hermione whispered. "Draco, are you there?" She began to open the door to the boys' lavatory. There lay Draco in a pool of crimson blood. Crimson blood that sparkled as the moon shone through the window. She knelt over Malfoy, drew her wand, and oscillated it over the deep wounds that Bellatrix's curse had created, muttering an incantation as a tear began to fall from her eye. The continuation of blood seemed to ease; Hermione gently wiped her tears and repeated her spell.

Draco eventually awoke in the puddle of water that lay around him. Hermione was still knelt beside him, waiting. She offered him her hand and he gently clutched on to it. Their skin embraced, the friction was striking. They both left the boys lavatory and followed the sound of cries and screams.

Bellatrix's laugh echoed through the Great Hall. She grinned, her teeth were bared. Her wand traced over each helpless individual. A clamour of spells was sent everywhere.

Draco and Hermione both caught sight of Bellatrix who stood on the table where the students would sit, carelessly kicking the glass bowls off with her feet. She was invincible, spells rebounded off her. She killed two innocent victims, with one curse.

_How had this all happened?_

Hermione rushed into the hospital wing. Malfoy lay there with a wound on his forehead. Hermione pressed her way through the crowd of students and sat on the edge of the bed. Draco opened his eyes and rubbed them, confused with events that had happened. Hermione rubbed her arm, it hurt. It was aching, like a steel knife had drawn over it.

Quidditch was soon over, Malfoy was still breathing. Hermione counted the days that had passed on her fingers; the series of unfortunate events. It was Tuesday; Hermione had her potions final next. She paraded off, still wondering and thinking how to make this better.

Hermione quill moved rapidly along the paper, every detail was defined. Other students let their minds wonder, Hermione was focused. Malfoy sat behind her. He cautiously looked around and then lightly brushed his quill on her back. She turnt around with a self-satisfied look on her face.

"Granger," He whispered. "I don't get jack about this!"

"Malfoy, it's barbaric how much of a dick you look when you say stuff like that." Hermione quoted.

"Fuck off, Granger" He said with a quaint smile. The clock struck and the students began to leave the Great hall worrying about how they did. Malfoy was the same, but Hermione comforted him.

The room was dark, full of dark magic. Draco caught a glimpse of the copper red. A perfect copper red. The sight of it, mudblood. Engraved on her pale skin. Hermione's screams ran through Draco. Her blood was red? Red. Not a muddy brown, like his! Bellatrix cackled with her knife firmly gripped.

She began to approach Hermione. Something inside Draco began to rage. His feelings became central; no longer could he hide it. That was it. For the second time his wand was aimed at Bellatrix the anger, the hatred was still the same. But why?

_Did this happen before? _

Hermione was safe, but Draco wasn't. Yet he opposed love for anger. But here he was again, but anger was dominated by his love for Hermione. He was braver this time; the words were stronger and came out this mouth like a knife through butter. This was real. His eyes squinted as the green light illuminated across the room. Bellatrix froze, last time it was luck. This time it was a sin. Her mouth ran cold; the sickly laugh was no longer heard.

Malfoy was frozen, his wand was still aimed at Bellatrix but he rotated and ordered each death eater to leave. They all responded immediately and walked out, none tried to battle. Draco rushed over to Hermione's ice cold body. He positioned one of his arms under her head and another under her legs and cautiously lifted her up; he stumbled a bit but regained his balance soon afterwards. Silence echoed throughout the room, dark magic was escaping. Hermione didn't stir, her mouth was dry. Malfoy wiped the residue off her face.

Hermione's eyes began to flicker, her breathing awoke. Draco sighed; he placed her back on the floor. She began to walk away from Hermione's hallucination.

There was nothing Hermione could do, these events could keep repeating themselves over and over again but no one would survive. Malfoy pulled Hermione close to him. He muttered something to her. She smiled briefly and a tear trickled down her fine skin. Those words finally made sense.

"Save me." He said, before closing his eyes and concluding his life once again.


End file.
